More than a third of UK farms are now running diversified businesses alongside their core farming operations, according to the latest annual survey by rural insurer NFU Mutual.
The insurer’s Voice of the Farmer study, which questioned 1,652 UK farmers in July 2026, found that 37% of farms had diversified this year. That compares with 32% in 2025, a rise of five percentage points in twelve months.
The increase comes as farm finances tighten. Defra figures published last week showed farm input costs rising by 8.6% in the year to August while the prices paid to farmers fell by 5.4%, as FERN reported. Direct payments in England are being phased out, and the reformed Sustainable Farming Incentive now caps agreements at £100,000 a year, according to Defra.
Reporting the findings, Farmers Guardian attributed the trend to “the need to boost incomes during a challenging period”. NFU Mutual says farmers have diversified to boost their incomes and keep their farms resilient for future generations.
Diversification already makes a measurable contribution to farm turnover. NFU Mutual’s 2024 diversification investigation found that income from diversified enterprises averaged 13% of turnover, and that 40% of farmers with existing ventures planned to develop them further over the following five years, Farmers Guide reported at the time.
Farm diversification ranges from holiday lets and farm shops to events venues, renewable energy and on-farm education. Many of these ventures depend on the planning system. In the Lake District, farmers are opposing a proposal to curb pop-up campsites that they say provide an important second income, as FERN reported this week.
For rural communities, diversified farms increasingly provide local jobs and visitor spending beyond agriculture itself. More than one in three UK farms now has that second income.
